Many forms of personal transportation lack desired controls, indications, or accessories suited to the personal tastes of the individual or individuals using the transportation. Automobile manufacturers provide a basic level of indicators and displays (e.g., speedometer, engine temperature, and fuel level, with warning lights for various other indicators) and forego the addition of ancillary instruments and gauges to keep their costs low. Simple efforts at adding gauges and other instruments to a vehicle's interior often sacrifice the stability of the factory equipment to which the instruments are attached, and further sacrifice the safety of the passengers by not adequately supporting the added instruments.
These problems provide opportunities for creative after-market solutions. Because of the expense of design and production, after-market manufacturers try to design products applicable to a wide variety of makes or styles of vehicles. Therefore, it is important that after-market solutions be versatile, capable of suiting most drivers regardless of the vehicle. Ideally, the flexibility of orientation and location would help a variety of drivers of a single vehicle to achieve spatial compatibility with the installed indications. Such products should also be effective, safe, inexpensive, and easy for the driver to install.
Most vehicles feature some exposed, available surface. For example, vehicles used in motor sports are likely to provide roll over protection through tubular roll bars or cages; additionally, in some of these vehicles the A-pillar is also an exposed tube. Larger vehicles, such as boats and automobiles may have free surfaces on dashboards or consoles in front and below the driver's field of view, as well as on the windshield or on the roof in front and above the driver's field of view. Such spots provide an opportunity for mounting one or more gauges, controls, or accessories.
Different drivers, and even different positions of a single driver can require a broad range of adjustment to preserve spatial compatibility of an important gauge or indication. Additionally, items such as gauges typically must be connected by wiring to the equipment measuring the given vehicle performance or other parameter to be displayed by the gauge. This requires provisioning for wire hookup and discrete wire covering.